Annette Sharp: Ita’s niece Lizzie Buttrose confirms she’s engaged again

Former Sydney ‘It’ girl Lizzie Buttrose has bounced back from an accident in a Port Douglas swimming pool with cow and is making wedding plans — again.

Another lockdown, another fiance.

That’s the mail from sunny Port Douglas, where accident-prone Sydney party girl Lizzie Buttrose continues to woo the local fellas, breaking hearts — and straining the occasional body part — in her rapture.

Lizzie Buttrose pictured at Watsons Bay Hotel in 2017 when she was campaigning to be a Real Housewife. Picture: Jonathan Ng

A year after revealing she was engaged to her eighth fiance, Queensland farmer Lee Dilkes, Buttrose has posted of her love for fiance number nine, local yacht builder Allen Mitchell.

History doesn’t relate when Ita Buttrose’s niece and Dilkes ended their affair, but her Instagram account suggests it happened around Christmas because Dilkes appeared loved up in December when he posted an image of Buttrose to his social media account in which he dubbed her “My elf on the shelf”.

In March 2020, Buttrose and Dilkes confirmed their engagement as the pandemic erupted and the first lockdown threatened in NSW.

Buttrose is engaged to yacht builder Allen Mitchell. Picture: Instagram

The Sydney socialite posted a pic of her new ring. Picture: Instagram

Yet by February this year Buttrose had moved on with Mitchell.

“And just like that … (engagement ring emoji) even in an alleged ‘pandemic’. I am good at something. #love. I love you @ocean_mitch,” she posted on February 17 along with an image of a broad gold band on a wedding finger.

That same week the self-described “trust fund kiddy” appeared on her ex-fiance Dilkes’s Instagram feed in a sign the exes remain on excellent terms.

“Just borrowing the fiance for lunch. Then maybe some desert (sic)…” posted Dilkes mischievously, along with a pic of he and Buttrose together. It drew a rebuke from Buttrose: “Don’t even … @leedilkes I love you but I’m in love with @ocean_mitch” – which in turn prompted a warning from Mitchell: “@lizziebuttrose you be good! Your (sic) my desert (sic) (bicep flex emoji).”

Buttrose’s since-deleted post of herself in a fur coat at Cairns Airport. Picture: Instagram

The former Sydney “It” girl’s 30,000 followers appear to enjoy the regular updates on Buttrose’s ever-changing love life.

She seems in a happier place than she was five years ago when she appeared in a Sydney court on one of a series of AVO matters concerning fiance number seven, cage fighter Zoran Stopar.

In echoes of those days, Buttrose’s long-time Sydney party accomplice Shari-Lea Hitchcock last week had a matter involving a restraining order against her on-again, off-again boyfriend Dallen Nichols adjourned in Nowra Local Court.

Yet Buttrose’s new life in Far North Queensland has been known to throw up some puzzling challenges.

In December, Buttrose was hospitalised after one of her cows reportedly fell into a swimming pool and stepped on her chest.

Then last month she was spotted at Cairns Airport dressed in a fur coat (posted to Instagram and later deleted) creating a scene and complaining on her phone — at high volume, it’s alleged — that she had a broken nose which she didn’t want “Annette Sharp” to see 2400km away in Sydney.

Confounded by the rumoured broken nose, the fur in Cairns, the overheard comment and the apparently cancelled trip to Sydney, this columnist tried to reach Buttrose for clarification on Friday — and, naturally, to congratulate her on her latest engagement — but is yet to hear back from her.

Originally published as Annette Sharp: Ita’s niece Lizzie Buttrose confirms she’s engaged again